Cyberwellness Talk for Parents

West View Primary School will be collaborating with West Spring Secondary School to organize a Cyberwellness talk for parents. The topic for the talk will be ‘Cyberwellness: Harnessing the Internet to Develop Your Child’.

In this eye-opening and informative workshop, you will be brought on a journey to discover the Cyber world through the eyes of youths. The trainer from Touch Youth will share insights on the impact of social media as well as offer practical tips and examples so that you can better manage your children. You will be empowered to see through the eyes of a youth and learn how you can guide your child in the Cyber world.

This workshop aims to provide parents with:

• awareness of current internet trends;
• understanding on the range of Cyberwellness issues facing youths today;
• tips to effectively parent your children in this digital age; and
• sources of help. 

The workshop will be held on Saturday, 9 March 2013 from 9am to 11am. The venue for the workshop is in the Auditorium, West Spring Secondary School.

Hope to see you there!

Cyber Bullying

Internet has become more common in society especially among young people. Hence, there seems to be an increase in the number of cyber bullying cases. What does the term cyber bullying actually mean and who is a cyber bully?

Definition of Cyber bullying: Cyber bullying is the use of the Internet and related technologies to harm other people, in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner. A cyber bully may be a person whom the target knows or an online stranger. A cyber bully may be anonymous and may solicit involvement of other people online who do not even know the target.

Cyber bullying can affect kids badly. If your child is a victim of cyber bullying, you may wish to read this article to learn more about it.

Below are some helplines where you can seek help from:

1. Samaritans of Singapore (SOS): 1800-2214444
2. Singapore Association for Mental Health: 1800- 2837019
3. Sage Counselling Centre: 1800-5555555
4. Care Corner Mandarin Counselling: 1800-3535800

Is my social network profile really private?

Take caution when sharing information online even if we have the best intentions in mind. We may think that privatising our social network profile is enough to protect our information but what does the term ‘privacy’ actually mean in social network?

Realistically there is no true privacy in the social web. Social networks are based on the concept of sharing therefore when we privatise our social network profile it just means that we protect our content from mass distribution by limiting it to those who have access to view it. But by sharing content with just one person online, we have moved it from a private to a public forum. It is at the point of sharing content no matter how limited, this may lead to unforeseen consequences.

Remember to take caution before posting. The question to ask ourselves not just who should we share with but should it be shared at all. Check this out for sharing information online tips!

From 4 Feb to 8 Feb 2013, pupils had Safer Internet Week in school. This year’s theme was ‘Connect with Respect’.

The week started with Mdm Ngiam sharing with pupils what the theme was all about. Next, our Cyber Warriors did their sharing and rewarded pupils who had shown good online behaviour. They held a quiz with pupils. For the next few two days, the Cyberwellness Watch was carried out where pupils watched videos and answered questions for the quiz. They also had the Ultimate Challenge where a few pupils were chosen to represent their houses to answer questions pertaining to Cyberwellness. The ‘Express Yourself’ competition was carried out to encourage pupils to use different ICT tools to write tips on how to be cyber safe. The highlight of the week was to play the Xbox Kinect Game after answering a correct Cyberwellness question in the hall during recess.

Pupils learnt a lot about Cyberwellness and at the same time, had a lot of fun participating in the activities organised by their teachers and the Cyber Warriors. Below are some of the pictures of the programmes.

Some of the winners of the “Find the Hidden Phrase”!

Battle of the houses during the “Ultimate Challenge” quiz.

Cyber Warriors assembly talk to their fellow schoolmates.

Quiz time conducted by cyber warriors.

Pupil answering quiz question.

Pupils receiving CIRA stickers as they use the social media in a positive manner.

Pupils playing the Xbox kinect during cca recess time after they answered a cyberwellness quiz questions correctly.

Pupils queue up to wait for their turn to answer the quiz and play the kinect.

Internet Addiction

While the Internet is a great place for adults, it is too for children. The Internet is a vast playground filled with fun and enrichment but also a potential source of problems. Let’s take a look at one of its many problems: Internet addiction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqMeFXy267Q&noredirect=1

You may wish to use the Youtube video to discuss internet addiction with your child.

Read an inspiring story on how 17 year old Kenneth Soh managed to overcome this addiction. http://www.touch.org.sg/node/578

If your child is having problems with Internet addiction, you can call Touch Cyber Wellness for help.

Touch Cyber Wellness:
Blk 162, Bukit Merah Central #05-3555, Singapore 150162
Tel: 6273 5568 Fax: 6271 5449
Website: http://www.planetcrush.org/

Next week, winners of the Safer Internet Week will be announced in this blog! Stay tuned!

Safer Internet Day

This year, Safer Internet Day will be observed in Singapore on 5^th February 2013. In accordance to this event, it is a good opportunity for us to use this platform to create greater awareness among our pupils through this year’s theme “Connect with Respect”. We have certainly lined up exciting programmes for our pupils!

Below are some of the activities that we have in line for them and the objectives:

1. Find the Hidden Phrase Puzzle (For Lower Primary Pupils)
• Objective: To use the puzzle as a stimulus to inculcate safe and responsible use of the internet
2. Express Yourself! Theme: Connect With Respect (For Upper Primary Pupils)
• Objective: Pupils to create an online poster/ create a PPT /take a video of not more than 1 minute based on the theme “Connect with Respect”. Let’s help them to unleash their creativity!
3. Cyber Warriors
• Objective: To provide a platform for Cyber Warriors to promote cyber wellness to their classmates.

We hope that through our programmes, our pupils will observe netiquette where they will be more aware of what they write on the internet and learn to show respect for others by writing appropriate, positive and encouraging notes.

Click here for more information on Safer Internet Day.